Chapter 1: Times Change
The sound of liquid trickling down onto a group of plants below was heard throughout the garden, as Moredread Enmity watered the plants below him with the watering can he held in the air with his spectral mouth. The equine eidolon, his smoky form covered in dark, steel armor, hummed a happy tune relating to the wrapping up of winter, as he himself wrapped up the last patch of daffodils and black-eyed Susans in the yard.
His bright green, red-irised eyes, a purple, misty haze trailing off of them, looked back to the house when he finished. The house, once nothing more than an old shack practically built of twigs and dirt, had been renovated into the proper, livable abode it was now, thanks in part to the friendly, generous denizens of Ponyville. Its now-whole walls were painted a vivid, attractive crimson color, and the roof was much more stable then it was before, while multiple windows lined its sides.
After placing the water can onto the grassy ground, Moredread began to head inside, going through the front door, and passing into the kitchen, the smell of smoke and something cooking coming from within it. The aroma came from a kettle that hung over the fireplace, the flames below lapping at its metal hide, its liquid contents bubbling into a small froth at its brim.
After checking the clock that sat on the wall, and seeing that the hands were in the right place, Moredread quickly used his magic to pull it from the fire, and nabbed a wooden bowl out of a cupboard nearby as well, placing them both on the oak table. Still humming the song, Moredread poured the kettle's steaming, orange contents into the bowl until it was full enough to his liking.
He blew the steam off of its top, and lifted it once more. Taking great care not to spill it, he began to march down the hall, letting the bowl levitate behind him all the way to a door he eventually stopped at, the words "Skia's Room" titled on it, written neatly in all-black ink. Turning the knob, and opening it up quietly, he peered inside at the room's dark interior.
The first thing that any pony would recognize, was that the room was cluttered with books. The Ingenious Gentlecolt Donkey Oaty of La Mancha, Daring Do and the Griffon's Goblet, and The History of Canterlot were to just name three of the hundred that littered the floor like autumn leaves, their individual colors matching such a scene.
There, on a bed in the corner of the room, sat a young, female changeling nymph, a book, titled The Advanced Study of Magics in her hooves, and her nose planted in it. Moredread couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at how much she acted like her idol, the princess Twilight Sparkle, his noise unintentionally catching her attention. The changeling's bright, green-tinted eyes showed through the darkness of her room, as she placed the book down, and after letting out a sniffling noise, she spoke.
"Hi Uncle Moredread..." she greeted, her voice low and nasally, due to her runny nose.
"Good morning Skia. I see you're awake. How are you feeling?" he asked, as he approached her, using his magic to pick up the medical thermometer on the nearby desk, and letting it float up to her.
"A lot better," she spoke back, as she caught the small glass object in her mouth. "I think I can go outside now."
After letting it sit in her mouth for a little bit, Moredread used his magic to gently pull it out, and took a peek at what it said. His eyebrow arched when he saw the results.
"You're still running a temperature," he said to her, when he finished examining the thermometer, before cutting another look at her. "Oh, ho, ho, I don't think so."
"But... but I feel better!" she protested. "It's just this stuffy nose. The rest of me feels good now, honest!"
"The thermometer says otherwise," Moredread said back. "You're staying in bed, young lady."
"Hmph," the young changeling huffed grumpily, folding her two front legs together, in a gesture of frustration, reflecting the curled expression her face showed. "That's not fair."
"Well, that's what you get for playing in the rain for a solid five hours without a jacket," he shrugged. "I did tell you to put one on, and now look; you caught the flu, and missed Cranky and Matilda's wedding."
"No... please don't remind about that..." Skia moaned, clamping her hooves over her webbed ears, and throwing her face into her pillow, in an effort to blot out his voice. "You have no idea how badly I wanted to go see it! Ugh..."
"I won't go on. I know how much you wanted to go to it," Moredread spoke in an understanding tone, as he walked up to her, the bowl he brought in with him levitating up to Skia's bedside. She lifted her head up, and looked at the object.
"Drink this," Moredread said again. "It's a potion I bought from Zecora. She told me that it will ease the symptoms some more, and that you should be fully cured by tonight."
"Oh. Okay... thanks," she replied, as she grasped the bowl in her hooves, and lifted it in a way so she could see the contents inside. After letting a deep breath escape her mouth, she brought the bowl up to it, and slowly downed its contents, until it was empty.
"Ick... that stuff tastes like... lemons and dirty water!" she sputtered, her face bearing a sour expression, when she finished. Moredread calmly took the bowl back, and levitated it behind himself, while he got ready to explain the final step that Zecora previously told him.
"You must go back to sleep for the potion to take an effect," the ghostly alicorn spoke, his magic pulling the quilt covers up to Skia's chest. She pulled them over herself, before giving an innocent look back at him. Moredread knew what question was going to come next.
"Is it okay if I... read a little longer?" she begged. "Just five more minutes? Pleeeaaase?"
Though the phantom wore a stern look, and the answer seemed obvious, he conceded with a sigh. "Just five more minutes. Not a second longer," he agreed, in a lighthearted voice, as he leaned forward and kissed the changeling on her warm forehead, just above her small horn.
"Thank you, Uncle Moredread. I love you," she said, with a weak smile of victory, before letting out a yawn. Moredread turned, and trotted, silently out of the room.
"I love you too. Sleep well, my little Skia," he whispered one last time, in a before closing the door.
"...I now pronounce you Jack and Jenny!" Mayor Mare said, both to the crowd, and to Cranky Doodle Donkey and Matilda, the latter two stood in front of her, dressed in as fine wedding attire as Ponyville could offer. After another moment staring into each other's eyes, the newly-married couple leaned in and kissed each other on the lips. The crowd of nearly a hundred ponies watching and listening, the princesses Celestia, Luna, and Cadence among them, let out shouts of joy and delight, and clapped their hooves together at the scene, filling the building with their applause.
No sooner had their boisterous noise started, the room seemed to light up like a rainbow, as the flower-like figures near where the two donkeys and mayor stood, appeared to erupt into an explosion of color, similar to a fireworks display, but smaller. Every pony in the room was stricken into deafening silence by the amazing sight.
"Ah, hahaha! Of course!" a random, brown-furred earth pony in the crowd suddenly yelled out, in a triumphant tone. "They need love to ignite! How could I have missed it?!"
As the objects continued to go off, near the back of the room, sitting by himself in a chair, Thoraxis the changeling couldn't help but let out a large, toothy smile of pure glee at what he saw. Matilda, his best friend in the town, had finally gotten married! He also agreed with the single pony's sentiment; the amount of love in the room was more than enough to set something off. He glanced over his shoulder once more, and spotted the few pony foals that sat a few chairs down, each huddled together, and staring back at him with wary eyes. Skia's classmates.
Thoraxis's smile slowly turned back into the neutral expression it once was, and he turned his gaze forward again, as he thought back to his precious foster daughter. It had been just over a year since he decided to stay in Ponyville, and raise Skia with the apparition that he now, almost, called friend. Skia had grown extremely fast, already being of more than the mind and build of your typical foal that goes to the schoolhouse, courtesy of how quickly changelings matured. In another year, she would be fully grown.
The sight of the bride and groom walking down the aisle snapped Thoraxis out of his thoughts. Acting on his feet, he left his chair, and ran up to the gathering mob of ponies that started to gather around them. Listening in, he could hear them cheering the two on. When Matilda was just a leg's length away, he shouted her name.
"Hey! Matilda!"
The donkey immediately looked in his direction, her blue eyes soon meeting his compound, teal ones. After saying something to Cranky that Thoraxis could not hear over the crowd's thunderous volume, he gave a nod, and Matilda proceeded to trot up to the lone changeling.
"Congratulations on getting married!" Thoraxis said again, with a wide grin, when he was sure she was within earshot. "Words alone can't express how happy I am for you!"
"Thank you so very much for showing up, Thoraxis. You're such a dear," the donkey spoke in her usual gentle voice, causing Thoraxis to blush slightly, mostly out of embarrassment at all the eyes that were probably watching him. Matilda continued, her head turning about, as if looking for somepony.
"If you don't mind me asking, where's your daughter at?" she asked in a curious tone.
"Oh, uh... Skia came down with a fever last night..." he started, slowly. "She's in bed at home, resting."
"What? Aww..." Matilda replied, with a dejected frown. "She wouldn't stop telling me how much she wanted to come see this. Who's watching her?"
"My... roommate," he said back. "She's in good hooves, don't worry. Before she fell asleep, she made me promise to come here and see the wedding."
"I see you kept that promise to her," she spoke. "I've noticed that you seem to do everything she asks without hesitation."
"That roommate of mine says that I spoil her," he chuckled. "That might explain it."
Matilda laughed softly from behind closed lips, before making a quick look at Cranky, who stood, as patient as he could be, behind her. She coughed into her hoof before talking again, a sense of urgency in her voice.
"Well... I hope Skia gets better. Thank you again for showing up, Thoraxis. It means more than you know."
"Oh, it was my pleasure entirely," Thoraxis quickly replied. After giving another smile, the donkey rejoined her husband, leaving the changeling in the crowd of onlookers, still shouting congratulatory words to the couple. Before he spoke his next words, to himself this time, Thoraxis began to ponder what exactly they meant, and why they rang truth.
"It was my... pleasure."